Betta Fish: Rip Gene, and thank you to this sub

I bought an established planted tank of FB marketplace a couple of weeks ago (my first foray into the hobby after trying to learn for the past four or five months), and it came with a surprise betta and some community fish and shrimp/snails. I immediately was smitten, named him Gene, and did a Bob's Burgers name theme for the rest of the residents as well.

Unfortunately, I noticed Gene seemed really chunky. I started researching and spent a long time in this sub to try to figure out what might be the problem and what to do about it. His scales weren't crazy pineconed, but his belly was huge. So I tried fasting him for a couple of days, with no change. I thought maybe he was munching on baby shrimps. So I pulled him out to fast him in a (just learned how to set up) hospital tank with some daphnia and Indian almond leaves to see if he was constipated. No change, and maybe even a little bigger bloat, so we moved on to epsom salt and Kanaplex as I started to suspect dropsy even without dramatic pineconing, not just bloating. By Wednesday, the bloat was so severe that it was stretching his skin awfully and he stopped showing interest in food.

At that point, I started planning for euthanasia. I ordered clove oil in case I could not bring myself to smash him, and started preparing myself to let him go over the fishy bridge. I found him passed away Thursday morning in his hammock.

I didn't expect all of this when I bought that tank. But I'm grateful that I could try to give him a little comfort and I hope he knows that he and I tried so hard to overcome this. I'm also so grateful for all of the participants here in bettafish, both those who have shared their similar situations and those who offered treatment plans and reassurance. I don't think I would have made it through these last two weeks without you.